Massacre of the Acqui Division

Overview

The Massacre of the Acqui Division, also known as the Cephalonia massacre, was a war crime by German soldiers against POWs of the Italian 33rd Infantry Division "Acqui" on the island of Cephalonia, Greece, in September 1943, following the Armistice of Cassibile during the Second World War. About 5,000 soldiers were executed, and around 3,000 more drowned.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Massacre of the Acqui Division occurred on the island of Cephalonia, Greece, in September 1943, following the Armistice of Cassibile, which had removed Italy from the Axis and left Italian forces in German-occupied territory in an ambiguous and exposed position. German forces on Cephalonia disarmed and then executed approximately 5,000 soldiers of the Italian 33rd Infantry Division "Acqui" as prisoners of war, with a further 3,000 dying by drowning. The killings constituted one of the largest massacres of POWs carried out by German forces in the European theater. The event illustrated the immediate and lethal consequences of Italy's armistice for Italian units stationed in German-controlled areas, as German commands in multiple theaters moved swiftly to neutralize former allied forces. The scale of the killings at Cephalonia made it a defining war crime case of the Italian-German rupture of 1943.